Cash payments cost bus company £65k to process

Liberty Bus told scrutiny the cost of processing cash payments amounted to £65,000 per year

Jersey's bus company only makes 72p from every £1 that it takes in cash payments, its boss has said.

Liberty Bus told a scrutiny panel the cost of processing cash payments amounted to £65,000 per year.

The Economic and International Affairs Panel was looking into how people paid for things, and how many islanders still used cash.

Director of the company Kevin Hart said drivers had to feed all the cash they received into a counting machine.

He said: "Then somebody's got to take it out of that machine and count it and separate it, got to bind the machine - the machine is currently end of life.

"That's £30,000 for a new machine just for the drivers to hand in without management time and reconciliation, £65,000 just in costs."

Mr Hart said 2.5% of its fares were paid in cash, with most people taking advantage of a discount for using a pre-paid Avanchi card or a bank card.

He added that there were no plans to stop taking cash - a move which would have to be agreed by the States.